President Barack Obama wipes his eye as he talks about the Connecticut elementary school shooting, Friday in the White House briefing room in Washington, D.C.AP Photo | CAROLYN KASTER

President Barack Obama, his voice breaking and tears forming
in his eyes, said the killing of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut
elementary school shows the nation must take "meaningful action" to stem such
violence.

"There's not a parent in America who doesn't feel the same
overwhelming grief that I do," Obama said at the White House, just hours after
at least one gunman opened fire at the school in Newtown, Conn. "Our hearts are
broken today."

The president ordered U.S. flags flown at half-staff at all
federal buildings and U.S. facilities overseas. He also canceled an appearance
next week in Maine.

Obama focused on the families of the victims and the reaction
of the nation, touching only briefing on the subject of ways to address gun
violence.

"As a country, we have been through this too many times.
Whether it's an elementary school in Newtown or a shopping mall in Oregon or a
temple in Wisconsin or a movie theater in Aurora or a street corner in Chicago,
these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods and these children are our children,"
Obama said. "And we're going to have to come together and take meaningful
action to prevent more tragedies like this regardless of the politics."

The Connecticut shooting, the deadliest in a string of mass
shootings this year, revived a national debate over gun control laws - a
politically fraught issue that the president avoided during his re-election
campaign.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said before Obama
spoke that reinstating the assault weapons ban "does remain a commitment" for
the president. He added that "today is not the day" to revive a policy debate.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, co-chairman of Mayors
Against Illegal Guns, said nothing was done after past mass shootings and now
there are young school children dead.

"Calling for 'meaningful action' is not enough," Bloomberg
said in a statement. "We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric
before. What we have not seen is leadership - not from the White House and not
from Congress. That must end today."

The mayor is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News
parent Bloomberg LP.

Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, a long- time advocate
of gun-control legislation, said in a statement that "our expressions of
sympathy must be matched with concrete actions to stop gun violence."

Lowey, who has co-sponsored legislation to require gun-show
operators to register with law-enforcement agencies and to keep
weapons-purchase records, said "we cannot tolerate mass shootings as a mere
inconvenience or a normal part of our everyday lives."

The "easy availability of the deadliest weapons to the most
dangerous people has cost countless lives and caused immeasurable suffering,
never more so than today," she said.

Gun control advocates used Twitter to assemble a protest
outside the White House to call for stricter gun laws. By the appointed hour,
about 100 people had gathered.

"The press secretary said this isn't the time to talk about
it, but it's the time to talk about it," Wilson said. "I know we've got plenty
of other problems, the fiscal cliff and everything, but we can't forget about
this. It's happening too much."

Earlier this week, three died after a gunman opened fire
inside a mall in suburban Portland, Ore. In August, a shooter took the lives of
six people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., before being killed by a police
officer. In July, a masked gunman opened fire at a midnight movie in Aurora,
Colo., killing 12 and injuring 58.

In the wake of the summer's shootings and in the midst of his
re-election campaign, Obama said he would "examine additional ways that we can
reduce violence" even as he resisted calls to push for legislation that would
curb such tragedies. Obama and his aides, during the campaign, said the
president supported a "common sense" approach to gun control.

During the Oct. 16 presidential debate at Hofstra University
in New York, Obama said that in a second term he would look into reinstating
the assault weapon ban, something he supported during his 2008 campaign.

Prefacing his answer by saying he believes in the Second
Amendment, Obama said he's committed to enforcing existing laws, making sure
they're keeping guns out of the hands of mentally ill criminals and doing more
to enforce background checks. Still, he was noncommittal about making the issue
a priority of his second term.

"And so what I'm trying to do is to get a broader
conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally," Obama said at the
debate. "Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban
reintroduced, but part of it is also looking at other sources of the violence,
because frankly, in my hometown of Chicago, there's an awful lot of violence,
and they're not using AK-47s, they're using cheap handguns."